§ 2.51 p.m.
§ Lord MonsonMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware that numerous small shareholders in British Telecom have forfeited a minimum of £18 each in consequence of the limited validity of the telephone bill vouchers issued to one third of the non-institutional share applicants, and whether they will ensure that any similar schemes being devised as a feature of forthcoming privatisation measures are made more flexible.
§ Lord BeaverbrookMy Lords, the rules relating to the BT telephone voucher scheme were set out clearly in the prospectus at the time of the offer for sale. The rules were designed to ensure that shareholders had sufficient quarterly bills against which vouchers could be used before the vouchers expired. It has emerged that a small proportion of shareholders have not made use of all their vouchers. It is clear that in the great majority of these cases shareholders have simply forgotten to use their vouchers. The Government will naturally take account of the experience gained from operating the BT scheme in putting forward similar schemes in future.
§ Lord MonsonMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord for that satisfactory reply. Will the noble Lord not agree that when vouchers are sent out in pairs to the customers and the first voucher cannot be used for several weeks and the second cannot be used for several months, it is almost inevitable that a proportion of customers will either have mislaid them or forgotten about them by the time the telephone bill arrives, and once the Bill is paid the vouchers effectively become worthless? Will the noble Lord not agree that in order to avoid any accusations of sharp practice, in this instance it would pay British Telecom to extend the life of the vouchers, particularly as the value of each voucher declines month by month in line with inflation?
§ Lord BeaverbrookMy Lords, the first batch of vouchers expired in April 1986. A total of 926,000 were issued, of which 889,000 were cashed and 37,000, or only 4 per cent., remained uncashed. These probably belonged to about 25,000 shareholders. Figures for the second batch, which expire tomorrow, are not yet available, but we expect the success rate to be broadly similar.
As regards the noble Lord's second supplementary question about the cost to these voucherholders, British Telecom is required to keep its prices to 3 percentage points below the rate of inflation. Perhaps the Government's record in keeping down the rate of inflation will demonstrate that very little has in fact been lost by these people.
§ Lord MonsonMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for having given so much detail, but will he not agree that the figures he gave prove that British Telecom has made an unexpected extra profit of at least £500,000 as a result of its customers-cum-shareholders having mislaid or forgotten about their vouchers? Would it not be fair for British Telecom to agree on an ex gratia basis to extend the life of the vouchers and return this money to the customers/shareholders?
§ Lord BeaverbrookMy Lords, no; the rules of the scheme were clearly set out in the prospectus, and all shareholders invested on that basis. The Government cannot alter the rules after the event. I should perhaps point out that the vouchers are a government, not a British Telecom, responsibility.